Talking To The Screen
The Deep End
Tuesday 1/28/03, 11:24pm
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I picked up 'The Deep End' after seeing it advertised as part of IFC's best of Sundance week. My only assumption going into it was this will be a good indie flick, no more no less.
Tilda Swinton stars as Margaret Hall, a suburban Nevada mother of three with a husband away in the Navy. Her eldest son, Beau (Johnathon Tucker), is a high school senior who is having a relationship with a man in Reno, Darby. One night, Darby comes to Beau's house. They fight. In an accident, Darby dies, but Beau doesn't know about it. The next morning after the fight, Margaret finds the body, and hides it, trying to protect her son. A few days later a man, Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic) comes to the Hall residence with a videotape of Beau and Darby having sex. He demands $50,000 in exchenge for not delivering the tape to the police. (As yet, the police have no connection between the missing Darby and Beau.)
This simple set up makes up the entirity of the film. Alek demands money from Margaret, but she, with her husband away, has no way to gather that wealth of funds. 'The Deep End' is character driven and by that I mean slow and patient. It flows like a slowly growing wave that doesn't quite crest, but rather swells and then quickly ebbs. There is little action involved, but a wealth of character modulations. Alek and Margaret have a unique relationship from the start, but as their interactions continue something like a friendship or a dependency develops.
The closest thing to a climax comes from a brilliantly shot scene in the last ten or so minutes of the film. It takes a car crash and films it in the style of a love scene with capping off the careful poignancy of the movie. The rest of the film is worth watching for this scene. It's that good.
In all 'The Deep End' is a very mature film. Its timbre is closer to that of a play than of a film. It's a slow story that's deliberatly and excellently acted, cleanly shot, with a few delightful exceptions. I would recommend it for an mid-spring sunday early evening with a cup of tea, toast and a light rain.
Home
I picked up 'The Deep End' after seeing it advertised as part of IFC's best of Sundance week. My only assumption going into it was this will be a good indie flick, no more no less.
Tilda Swinton stars as Margaret Hall, a suburban Nevada mother of three with a husband away in the Navy. Her eldest son, Beau (Johnathon Tucker), is a high school senior who is having a relationship with a man in Reno, Darby. One night, Darby comes to Beau's house. They fight. In an accident, Darby dies, but Beau doesn't know about it. The next morning after the fight, Margaret finds the body, and hides it, trying to protect her son. A few days later a man, Alek Spera (Goran Visnjic) comes to the Hall residence with a videotape of Beau and Darby having sex. He demands $50,000 in exchenge for not delivering the tape to the police. (As yet, the police have no connection between the missing Darby and Beau.)
This simple set up makes up the entirity of the film. Alek demands money from Margaret, but she, with her husband away, has no way to gather that wealth of funds. 'The Deep End' is character driven and by that I mean slow and patient. It flows like a slowly growing wave that doesn't quite crest, but rather swells and then quickly ebbs. There is little action involved, but a wealth of character modulations. Alek and Margaret have a unique relationship from the start, but as their interactions continue something like a friendship or a dependency develops.
The closest thing to a climax comes from a brilliantly shot scene in the last ten or so minutes of the film. It takes a car crash and films it in the style of a love scene with capping off the careful poignancy of the movie. The rest of the film is worth watching for this scene. It's that good.
In all 'The Deep End' is a very mature film. Its timbre is closer to that of a play than of a film. It's a slow story that's deliberatly and excellently acted, cleanly shot, with a few delightful exceptions. I would recommend it for an mid-spring sunday early evening with a cup of tea, toast and a light rain.